TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 16, 20 April 1867, Page 2

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

J.P.—lt was the opponents of the slave trade who caused “ thehorrors of the middle passage and it is the opponents of corporal punishments who by Solitary confinement inflict more mental injury than any mere physical chastisement could accomplish. We have no faith in flogging, but wc should like to sec those .who condemn men to be buried alive in dark cells for a lengthened period to have a taste of that punishment themselves. A private soldier by the name of White was flogged to death at the Hounslow Barracks in the year 1840. The number of those whose intellects have been impaired or whose death has been caused by solitary confinement is much larger than is generally imagined. The gallows of our forefathers was, as we have before said, a less cruel because a less painful and lingering punishment than that which modern humanity has introduced. 'We trust that some .member of our Colonial Parliament will take up the question. Anno.—The quotation, “ The quarrel is a very pretty quarrel as it stands,” is from Sheridan’s play, “ The Rivals.” A.B.—Mr Keunard has recently been on a visit to this district. It is reported that he has secured the services of Mr Bunny as his advocate in the Provincial Council. We have not received the Blue Book with which he has favored the press of the colony, and which has afforded the majority of them with such a tempting opportunity of having a slap at Dr. Peathersfcon and the Province of Wellington as to have proved, in the majority of instances, irresistible. We shall not shirk the question when it comes officially before the Provincial Council. J.P. —We cannot answer questions relating to love or matrimony, though we can say with Prior—- “ Tho’ I am old and for lady’s love unfit The power of beauty I remember yet.” Philo.—ln the “ Sydney Herald ” there is a list of Benevolent Institutions in Sydney which occupy in their brief description and enumeration no less than two columns of that journal. There are nothing of the kind in Wellington, The money raised by a bazaar for a home for the homeless jhas we believe been invested, instead of being applied to the object designed. It requires some moral courage to brave public opinion, and they are worthy of being heroes, heriones, or martyrs who do so in a cause they deem just or holy. J.D. —The banks, as money lenders, are not generally supposed to care or even to know to what special purpose the bills they discount are to be devoted.